The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage from the University of Strasbourg (France), Fraser Stoddart from Northwestern University (USA) and Bernard Feringa from the University of Groningen (Holland). The prestigious prize was awarded "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines" - individual molecules or molecular complexes that can make certain movements when energized from the outside. Further development this field promises breakthroughs in many areas of science and medicine.
The Nobel Committee regularly recognizes works in which, in addition to scientific value, there is still some additional zest. So, for example, in the discovery of graphene by Geim and Novoselov (see Nobel Prize in Physics - 2010, "Elements", 11.10.2010), in addition to the discovery itself and its use for observing the quantum Hall effect at room temperature, there were remarkable technical details: peeling layers of graphite with plain tape. Shechtman, who discovered quasicrystals, had a history of scientific confrontation with another respected nobeliate, Pauling, who declared that "there are no quasicrystals, but there are quasi-scientists."
In the field of molecular machines, at first glance, there is no such zest, except for the fact that one of the laureates, Stoddart, has a knighthood (he is not the first one). But in fact, there is an important feature. The synthesis of molecular machines is almost the only field in the academic organic chemistrywhich can be called pure engineering on molecular levelwhere people design a molecule from scratch and don't rest until they get it. In nature, of course, there are similar molecules (this is how some proteins of organic cells are arranged - myosin, kinesins - or, for example, ribosomes), but people are still far from this level of complexity. Therefore, for now, molecular machines are the fruit of the human mind from beginning to end, without attempts to imitate nature or explain the observed natural phenomena.
So, we are talking about molecules in which one part is able to move relative to another in a controlled way - usually using partly external influences and heat to move. To create such molecules, Sauvage, Stoddard and Feringa came up with different principles.
Sauvage and Stoddard made mechanically linked molecules: catenans - two or more linked molecular rings rotating relative to each other (Fig. 1), and rotaxanes - composite molecules of two parts, in which one part (ring) can move along the other (straight base ), which has bulky groups (stoppers) at the edges, so that the ring “does not fly off” (Fig. 2).
Using the above concept, “molecular lift”, “molecular muscles”, various molecular topological structures of theoretical interest, and even an artificial ribosome capable of synthesizing short proteins very slowly were created.
Feringa's approach was fundamentally different and very elegant (Fig. 3). In Feringa's molecular motor, the parts of the molecule spinning relative to each other are not mechanically linked, but by a real covalent bond - a carbon-carbon double bond. Rotation of groups around a double bond is impossible without external influence. Such an effect can be irradiation with ultraviolet light: figuratively speaking, ultraviolet light selectively breaks one bond into a double one, allowing rotation for a split second. In this case, in all positions, the Feringa molecule is structurally strained and the double bond is elongated. The molecule, when twisted, follows the least resistance, trying to find the position with the least tension. She fails to do this, but at each stage she turns almost exclusively in one direction.
A similar motor with minor modifications, as shown in 2014, is capable of approximately 12 million revolutions per second (J. Vachon et al., 2014. An ultrafast surface-bound photo-active molecular motor). The most beautiful use of the Feringa motor was demonstrated in a "nanomachine" on a gold substrate (Fig. 4). Four motors, tied like wheels to a long molecule, rotate in one direction, and the "car" goes forward.
At the moment, a molecular motor is being developed that can be activated visible light instead of UV. With the help of such a motor, it will be possible to convert solar energy into mechanical energy in a completely unprecedented way - bypassing electricity.
In his most recent work, published in the journal of the American Chemical Society ( JACS), Feringa showed the design of a motor whose rotational speed can be controlled by chemical action, as shown in Fig. 5. When adding an effector molecule (metal dichloride - zinc Zn, palladium Pd or platinum Pt) to the molecular motor, the latter changes its conformation, which facilitates rotation. Measurements showed that at 20 ° C, of \u200b\u200bthe three effectors tested, the motor rotates fastest with platinum (0.13 Hz), slightly slower with palladium (0.035 Hz), and even slower with zinc (0.009 Hz). The maximum speed of the motor without an effector is 0.0041 Hz. The observed phenomenon was confirmed by quantum mechanical calculations of motor structures with and without effectors. The calculations show how the conformation changes and how much easier rotation is.
In conclusion, it should be said that molecular motors have not yet found application in everyday life, but it is almost certainly a matter of time and in the near future we will see their active use.
Sources:
1) The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 - the official announcement of the Nobel Committee.
2) Molecular Machines - a detailed review of the work of the laureates prepared by the Nobel Committee.
3) Adele Faulkner, Thomas van Leeuwen, Ben L. Feringa, and Sander J. Wezenberg. Allosteric Regulation of the Rotational Speed \u200b\u200bin a Light-Driven Molecular Motor // Journal of the American Chemical Society... September 26, 2016. V. 138 (41). P. 13597-13603. Doi: 10.1021 / jacs.6b06467.
Grigory Molev
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Bernard Feringa and Fraser Stoddart are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Announcement of Nobel Prize Winners in Chemistry
Moscow. October 5. site - The Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2016 was received by Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Bernard Feringa and Fraser Stoddart with the formulation "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines."
Sauvage is a French chemist specializing in supramolecular chemistry. It is a field of chemistry that investigates supramolecular structures - assemblies of two or more molecules held together through intermolecular interactions. Sauvage was the first chemist to synthesize a compound from the catenan class. The molecules of these substances consist of two rings linked to each other; this type of connection is called topological, specifies the site N + 1.
Illustration of stretching and contracting molecular loop structure
Fraser Stoddart, a Scottish scientist now working in the United States, expanded the list of compounds with similar "non-chemical" bonds by synthesizing rotaxane. Rotaxan molecules consist of a long chain, which is loosely fitted with a ring. Thanks to the two large structures at the ends of the chain, the ring cannot "fall off" from it.
Stoddart-created molecular transfer capable of moving along an axis under control
Bernard Feringa, a specialist in molecular nanotechnology and homogeneous catalysis, became the first chemist to develop and synthesize a molecular motor - a molecule that undergoes structural changes under the influence of light and begins to rotate like a windmill blade in a strictly specified direction. In 1999, with the help of molecular motors, the scientist managed to make a glass cylinder rotate 10 thousand times the size of the motors.
An example of a molecular machine with four "wheels"
In 2015, the Swede Thomas Lindahl, who works in the UK, and the American Paul Modric and the Turkish scientist Aziz Sankar, who are conducting research in the United States, became Nobel laureates in the same category. The award was given to him for his research into the mechanisms of DNA repair - a special function of cells, which is the ability to repair chemical damage and breaks in DNA molecules that occur during normal biosynthesis or as a result of exposure to physical or chemical agents.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014 by the Americans Eric Betzig and William Moner and the German Stefan Hell for their contributions to the development of ultra-high resolution fluorescence microscopy.
Earlier this week, the Nobel Prize in Medicine (won by Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi) and the Nobel Prize in Physics (won by David Thoules, Duncan Haldane and Michael Kosterlitz for topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter) were announced.
Nikolai Semenov (1896-1986), together with the Englishman Cyril Hinshelwood, became the only Russian Nobel laureate in chemistry in 1956 for researching the mechanism of chemical reactions.
The next Nobel Prize winner, the Peace Prize Laureate, will be announced on Friday 7 October.
The 2016 Nobel Prize winners will receive 8 million Swedish kronor (about $ 931 thousand). The award ceremony will traditionally take place in Stockholm on December 10, the day of the death of the founder of the Nobel Prizes - Swedish entrepreneur and inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896).
The 2016 Nobel Prize Laureates in Chemistry have been announced today. For the design and synthesis of molecular machines, three chemists will receive a total of 58 million rubles - Jean-Pierre Sauvage (France), Sir Fraser Stoddart (USA) and Bernard Feringa (Holland). Life tells about what molecular machines are and why their creation deserves such a prestigious scientific award.
What is a machine in the most general sense of this term? This is a device sharpened for certain operations, capable of performing them "in exchange" for fuel. The machine can rotate, raise or lower any object, it can even work as a pump.
But how small can such a machine be? For example, some of the details of watch movements look very tiny - could there be anything smaller? Yes, absolutely. Physical methods make it possible to cut a gear with a diameter of a couple of hundred atoms. This is hundreds of thousands of times less than one millimeter familiar from the school ruler. In 1984, Nobel laureate Richard Feynman asked physicists how small a mechanism with moving parts can be.
Feynman was inspired by examples from nature: the flagella of bacteria, which allow these tiny organisms to move, rotate thanks to a complex of several protein molecules. But can a person create something like that?
Molecular machines, possibly consisting of just one molecule, seem like something out of the realm of fantasy. Indeed, we have only recently learned to manipulate atoms (the famous IBM experiment took place in 1989) and to work with single, immobile molecules. For this, physicists create huge installations and spend incredible efforts. Nevertheless, chemists have found a way to immediately create quintillion of such devices. It was he who became the subject of the 2016 Nobel Prize.
The main problem in making a single-molecule machine is chemical bonding. It is what binds all the atoms of a molecule together that prevents it from having movable parts. In order to resolve this contradiction, chemists "invented" a new type of connection - mechanical.
What are mechanically bound molecules like? Imagine a large molecule with atoms lined up in a ring. If we pass another chain of atoms through it and also close it in a ring, we get a particle that cannot be divided into two rings without breaking chemical bonds. It turns out that from the point of view of chemistry, these rings are connected, but there is no real chemical bond between them. By the way, this design was called catenan, from the Latin catena - chain. The name reflects the fact that such molecules are like chain links interconnected.
Laureate from France, Jean-Pierre Sauvage, received the award in many respects for his breakthrough work on the methods of synthesizing catenans. In 1983, a scientist figured out how to obtain such molecules on purpose. He did not become the first to synthesize catenan, but the template synthesis method proposed by him is also used in modern works.
There is another class of mechanically bound compounds called rotaxanes. The molecules of such compounds consist of a ring through which a chain of atoms is threaded. At the ends of this chain, chemists place special "plugs" to prevent the ring from sliding off the chain. They were handled by another Nobel laureate this year, Sir James Fraser Stoddart. By the way, the Scotsman-born Stoddart is the holder of the title of a knight-bachelor. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II herself for his work on organic synthesis. However, Stoddart now works in the USA, at Northwestern University.
In these classes of connections separate fragments can move freely relative to each other. The catenan rings can rotate freely relative to each other, and the rotaxan ring can slide along the chain. This makes them good candidates for the molecular machinery that Feynman became interested in. However, in order for these structures to be called that, one more thing must be achieved from them - controllability.
Especially for this, chemists used the basic ideas of electrostatics: if you make one of the rings charged, and on the second ring (or chain) you place fragments that can change their charge under the influence of external influences, then you can make the ring repel from one area of \u200b\u200bthe ring (or chain) and move to another. In the first experiments, scientists learned how to force molecular machines to perform similar operations using chemical influences. The next step was the use of light, electrical impulses and even just heat for the same purposes - these methods of transferring "fuel" made it possible to speed up the operation of machines.
The work of the third laureate, Bernard Feringha, deserves a special mention. The Dutch chemist managed to do without mechanically bound molecules. Instead, the scientist found a way to make the molecules of a compound containing traditional chemical bonds... In 1999, Feringa demonstrated a molecule that looked like two blades connected to each other. Each of these blades tried to push off from each other, and their asymmetrical shape made it advantageous to rotate in only one direction, as if there was a ratchet on the "axis" between these blades.
To make the molecule work like a rotor, it was enough just to shine ultraviolet light on it. The blades began to rotate relative to each other in a strictly specified direction. Later, chemists even fixed such rotor molecules on a huge (compared to the rotor itself) particle and thus forced it to rotate. By the way, the rotation speed of a free rotor can reach tens of millions of revolutions per second.
With these three simplest molecules, chemists have been able to create a variety of molecular machines. One of the most beautiful examples is molecular "muscle", which is a strange hybrid of catenan and rotaxan. Under chemical influences (adding copper salts), the "muscle" contracts by two nanometers.
Another version of the molecular machine is an "elevator" or elevator. It was introduced in 2004 by Stoddart's rotaxane group. The device allows the molecular platform to be raised and lowered by 0.7 nanometers, producing a "tangible" force of 10 picopascals.
In 2011, Feringa showed the concept of a four-rotor molecular "machine" capable of driving with electrical impulses. The "nanomachine" was not only built, but it was also possible to confirm its operability: each revolution of the rotors indeed slightly changed the position of the molecule in space.
Although these devices look entertaining, it must be remembered that one of Nobel's requirements for the laureates was the importance of discoveries for science and humanity. Partly to the question "why is this necessary?" Bernard Feringa replied when he was informed of the award. According to the chemist, with such controlled molecular machines, it becomes possible to create medical nanorobots. "Imagine tiny robots that doctors of the future can inject into your veins and direct them to look for cancer cells." The scientist noted that he felt the same as the Wright brothers probably felt after the first flight, when people asked them about why flying machines might be needed at all.
ALL PHOTOS
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. The award was received by the researcher from the Netherlands Bernard Feringa, Briton James Fraser Stoddart working in the United States and Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sauvage, according to a press release from the Nobel Committee.
Scientists have been able to develop the world's smallest machines. The researchers managed to link the molecules together, creating a tiny elevator, artificial muscles and microscopic motors. “The 2016 Nobel Prize winners in chemistry have miniaturized machines and brought chemistry to a new dimension,” the committee's website says. The press release notes that with the development computing technology miniaturization of technology can lead to a revolution.
A team of scientists have developed motion-controlled molecules that can perform tasks when added energy. The first step towards creating molecular machines was taken by Sauvage in 1983, forming a chain of two ring-shaped molecules, called catenan. In order for a machine to complete a task, it must be composed of parts that could move relative to each other. This requirement was met by two rings connected by Sauvage.
The second step was taken by Stoddart in 1991, synthesizing rotaxane, a compound in which a circular one is worn over a dumbbell-shaped molecule. Among his developments are the molecular elevator, molecular muscle and a computer chip based on molecules.
Finally, Feringa demonstrated molecular motors in 1999.
It is assumed that in the future, molecular machines will be used to create new materials, sensors, and energy storage systems.
Stoddart was born in 1942 in Edinburgh. The scientist specializes in supramolecular chemistry and nanotechnology, works at Northwestern University in the US state of Illinois. Born in Paris in 1944, Sauvage is engaged in scientific activities at the University of Strasbourg, his specialization is coordination compounds. Feringa, born 1951 in Barger-Compaskum in the Netherlands, is a professor of organic chemistry at the Dutch University of Groningen.
The size of the Nobel Prize is 8 million SEK. The Chemistry Prize has been awarded since 1901 (except 1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941 and 1942). This year the award was presented for the 108th time.
In 2015 Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to the Swede Thomas Lindahl, the US citizen Paul Modric and the Turkish American Aziz Sankar for researching the mechanisms of DNA repair. The work of scientists gave the world fundamental knowledge about the functions of living cells and, in particular, about their use in new methods of fighting cancer, the Nobel Committee said. It is estimated that about 80-90% of all cancers are associated with a lack of DNA repair.
According to the rules, the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry can only be awarded to authors of articles published in a peer-reviewed press. In addition, the discovery must be truly significant and universally recognized by the world scientific community, so experimenters receive awards more often than theoreticians.
The day before, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded in Stockholm. The awards went to three British scientists based in the United States. Briton Duncan Haldane and Scottish Americans David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz received the prize for "theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter." Scientists have investigated unusual states of matter. We are talking about superconductors, superfluids and thin magnetic films.
The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to 71-year-old Japanese scientist Yoshinori Osumi on October 3. He was awarded for his discoveries in the field of autophagy (from the Greek for "self-eating") - the process by which the internal components of a cell are delivered inside its lysosomes (in mammals) or vacuoles (yeast cells) and undergo degradation in them.
noted
Laureates: French Jean-Pierre Sauvage from the University of Strasbourg, Scottish native Sir J. Fraser Stoddart from Northwestern University, Illinois, USA and Bernard L . Feringa) from the University of Groningen (Netherlands).
source: pbs.twimg.com
The wording about the award is “for the design and synthesis of molecular machines”. This year's laureates have contributed to a miniaturization of technology that could be revolutionary. Sauvage, Stoddart, and Feringa not only miniaturized machines, but also gave chemistry a new dimension.
Scientists have created molecular mechanisms that can make directional movements and thus act like real machines. They can be used primarily in various sensors, as well as in medicine.
According to a press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Professor Jean-Pierre Sauvage took his first step towards a molecular machine in 1983, when he successfully linked two ring-shaped molecules together to form a chain known as a catenan. Molecules usually bond strong covalent bonds, in which the atoms are divided by electrons, but in this chain they are connected by a looser mechanical bond. For a machine to perform a task, it must be composed of parts that can move relative to each other. Two connected rings fully meet this requirement.
The second step was taken by Fraser Stoddart in 1991 when he developed rotaxane (a kind of molecular structure). He cut a molecular ring into a thin molecular axis and showed that this ring can move along the axis. Rotaxanes are the basis for developments such as molecular lift, molecular muscle and a computer chip based on a molecule.
And Bernard Feringa was the first person to develop the molecular motor. In 1999, he got a molecular rotor blade constantly rotating in one direction. Using molecular motors, he rotated a glass cylinder that was 10 thousand times larger than the motor, and the scientist also developed a nanocar.
Interestingly, the 2016 laureates did not particularly "shine" in the various lists of favorites that appear every year on the eve of the "Nobel week".
Among those who received the award in chemistry this year by the media, for example, George M. Church and Feng Zhang (both work in the USA) - for the application of CRISPR-cas9 genome editing in human and mouse cells.
Also on the favorites list was Hong Kong scientist Dennis Lo (Dennis Lo Yukmin) for his discovery of cell-free intrauterine DNA in mainland plasma, which revolutionized non-invasive prenatal testing.
The names of Japanese scientists were also named - Hiroshi Maeda and Yasuhiro Matamura (for the discovery of the effect of increased permeability and retention of macromolecular drugs, which is a key finding for the treatment of cancer).
In some sources, one could find the name of the chemist Alexander Spokoiny, who was born in Moscow, but after his family moved to America, he lives and works in the United States. He is called the "rising star of chemistry." By the way, Academician Nikolai Semenov became the only Soviet winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1956 for the development of the theory of chain reactions. Most of the recipients of this award are scientists from the United States. In second place are German scientists, in third - British.
The Chemistry Prize may well be called "the most Nobel of the Nobel Prizes." After all, the person who founded this award, Alfred Nobel, was precisely a chemist, and in the Periodic Table chemical elements next to mendelevium is nobelium.
The award is decided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. From 1901 (then the Dutchman Jacob Hendrik Van't Hoff became the first awarded in the field of chemistry) to 2015, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded 107 times. Unlike similar awards in the field of physics or medicine, it was more often awarded to one laureate (in 63 cases), and not to several at once. Moreover, only four women became laureates in chemistry - among them Marie Curie, who also had the Nobel Prize in physics, and her daughter Irene Joliot-Curie. The only person who received the chemical Nobel twice was Frederic Sanger (1958 and 1980).
The youngest recipient was 35-year-old Frederic Joliot, who received the award in 1935. And the oldest was John B. Fenn, whom the Nobel Prize "caught up" at the age of 85.
Last year, Thomas Lindahl (UK) and two scientists from the United States - Paul Modric and Aziz Sanchar (a native of Turkey) - became Nobel laureates in chemistry. The award was given to them for "mechanical research into DNA repair."